Today, car wash facilities are often included at service stations. Customers can obtain a car wash for their vehicle when visiting a service station. A typical service station is comprised of a plurality of fuel dispensers connected to a service station site controller, which may also be a point-of-sale (POS) device. The POS controls the high-level authorization and functionality of each of the fuel dispensers. Each of the fuel dispensers is connected to the POS through a pump communication loop, where each individual fuel dispenser is individually addressable as a client on the pump loop.
Car wash systems at service stations that exist today provide a separate car wash controller that controls the physical car wash. A car wash controller is directly connected to the POS via direct communication link. The car wash controller is not connected to the pump communication loop and does not appear to the POS as a client like that of a fuel dispenser. A car wash controller has two physical links in addition to its RS-232 link to the POS. The first link is to a coin box. The second link is to the physical car wash itself. In this manner, the car wash controller controls activation of the car wash based on the customer's interaction with the coin box.
There are two methods of obtaining a car wash. A customer can enter payment at the coin box, and the coin box interacts with the car wash controller to authorize the physical car wash. Or the customer can pay for a car wash at the POS or the fuel dispenser. The POS, either initially or through communication with a fuel dispenser, communicates a car wash request to the car wash controller, via the direct link between the POS and the car wash controller, to request an authentication code. The authentication code is given to the customer and is later entered at the coin box when the customer desires to receive the car wash. The coin box communicates the authentication code to the car wash controller, and the car wash controller activates the physical car wash if the authentication code is authenticated as having been previously generated by the car wash controller in response to a request from the POS.
Because the coin box is directly connected to the car wash controller, the POS cannot communicate to the coin box. Any payment at the coin box for a car wash must be handled solely by the coin box thereby requiring the coin box to provide all functionality for all payment processing types. Coin boxes typically only accept authorization codes (received at the fuel dispenser or POS) or cash for payment of a car wash. Given that many customers do not carry cash on hand, a customer who desires to purchase a car wash at the coin box is not able to do so. This sometimes results in lost sales and causes non-paying customers to take up space in the line for entrance into the car wash. Therefore, a need exists to provide a coin box with alternative payment possibilities to allow a customer to more easily pay for a car wash.